Emma Gold
by fringeperson
Summary: Regina's need to gloat is a flaw, and will definitely be a part of her eventual downfall. Definitely. Oneshot. Don't Own. Complete. Includes Rumbelle and SwanFire.


Bonnie Gold picked up the phone when it rang.

"Gold's Pawn Shop," she greeted whoever was calling. "Mrs Gold speaking."

" _Mom_?"

"Emma?!" Bonnie yelped happily, and her joyful exclamation brought her husband limping in from the next room as fast as his bad leg and his cane would allow. "Baby girl, how are you?"

There was a wet laugh from the other end of the line.

" _Mom, I'm pregnant, in juvie, and in Phoenix,_ " Emma answered her mother, the words all coming out in a rush.

"Juvie?" Bonnie repeated, eyes wide in her face.

An equally shocked and horrified expression appeared on her husband's face at the word, and he gestured for her to pass him the phone quickly.

" _And here I thought you'd be hung up on me being pregnant,_ " Emma tried to joke.

"Emma, your father wants a word," Bonnie said, and passed over the phone so that she could stew on her daughter's current predicament in appropriate motherly fashion.

"What happened?" Rumford Gold asked, by-passing the pleasantries of greetings for more urgent matters.

" _I got caught with a bag full of stolen watches and no reasonable excuse for how I got them,_ " Emma admitted. " _Not that didn't implicate my guy, anyway, and even if he ran... I love him Daddy. It hurts, but..._ "

"You leave home and you fall in with criminals," Rumford lamented, a weak smile on his face. He hadn't properly heard the 'baby-daddy' bit.

" _He's a good guy, Daddy,_ " Emma insisted. " _He's made some sucky choices, but underneath it... and what he told me about his home-life sounded kinda messed up too, so it's not all his fault._ "

"How about I make up my own mind about him when you drag him back to Storybrooke so that your mother and I can actually meet him," Rumford suggested with a smile.

A sniffle echoed down the line.

" _Daddy, I'm pregnant._ "

Rumford went absolutely still as his brain processed that. He didn't even hear the bell over the shop door jingle.

Bonnie went to see who it was.

"What are you going to do?" he eventually asked, careful of his girl's no-doubt roller-coaster of emotions.

" _There's nothing I can do. That's why I called,_ " Emma admitted. " _Turns out that it's standard for any babies born in juvie in Phoenix get put up for adoption, whether the mother wants the baby or not. Closed adoption too, so I'll never get to even see my kid apart from those first few moments. Daddy... please, I need help. I'm not going to be out of here before the kid is born. My baby is going to be taken away from me._ "

"I need a child, Mrs Gold," Regina's voice floated through the shop. "And I need your husband's help."

"I'm assuming you mean his legal help, not the other kind," Bonnie's voice cut sharply back.

"I've spent all morning on the phone with adoption agencies. The wait-lists are over two years long," Regina said, and there was a distinct tone of 'I would not touch your husband with a ten-foot pole' in her voice. "But you and your husband have experience with the System, and Mr Gold particularly can cut through red tape. If anyone can work the System and find me a baby..."

"Yes. Quite. I take it then that you want an infant, rather than a child already potty-trained and able to talk?" Bonnie questioned.

"I want a child who can be mine," Regina answered firmly.

"Hm. Well, Rum's on the phone to the particular little angel that we fostered right now, but if you're willing to wait...?" Bonnie offered.

"Certainly."

" _Daddy?_ " Emma's voice called from the other end of the phone. " _Please say you can help me._ "

"It's going to be complicated," Rumford warned her cautiously as the wheels of his mind turned. In those dark recesses, the problem was carded, gathered and spun as he worked towards an answer.

" _Nothing that's truly worth it is ever easy or cheap,_ " Emma agreed.

Rumford could see in his mind's eye his little girl's wet smile when she said that.

"I need you to give me the phone number of the detention centre you're being held in," he said. "I think I have a solution."

" _Just please don't tell me that my son will also legally be my brother,_ " Emma tried to joke.

"Always an option," Rumford assured with a chuckle. "But someone just came barging into the shop asking for help getting a child."

" _Couldn't ask for better than Storybrooke for a kid to grow up in,_ " Emma agreed. " _If only all the other kids would grow up too._ "

Rumford chuckled at that, and though he knew Emma wouldn't see, he nodded.

~oOo~

Regina barged into the shop, a baby carrier hanging from one hand, and an adorable little bundle in blue within that.

"You knew!" she accused the Golds once she'd set the carrier down on the counter.

"Knew what, exactly?" Rumford questioned politely, though his concerned gaze was on the baby, not the mayor.

"The child that you located for me in Phoenix," Regina said, voice raising angrily as she spoke and her finger pointed at the babe as though he were diseased.

"He's adorable," Bonnie cooed as she scooped him out of the carrier and held him close to her chest. She bounced him a little, then looked over to her husband. "Maybe we made a mistake, stopping at one, never going for a baby."

Rumford chuckled at his wife. She was already in love with her grandson, it seemed.

"His mother was found in the woods, just outside of Storybrooke, eighteen years ago," Regina said, and it seemed that the date, specifically, had set her back up.

"What a startling co-incidence," Mr Gold observed.

"Eighteen years ago?!" Regina re-emphasised.

"I'm afraid I'm missing the significance," Rumford said, a faint smirk dancing about the edge of his expression. "You'll have to forgive me. My memory is not what it was."

"I think," Bonnie offered. "That Gina is getting at the point that eighteen is rather young to be a mother."

"Love, Emma hardly planned the pregnancy," Mr Gold reminded his wife.

"I know," Mrs Gold agreed. "Just like she didn't plan being forced to give this little one up to a closed adoption."

"Forced? Em-? You know the mother?" Regina questioned, her incredulous rage derailed.

"So do you," Bonnie agreed with a smile as she continued to rock the infant and hold him close to her heart. "Emma, the girl we took in as a foster child when she was five."

"Previous foster carer lost his job suddenly and couldn't afford to send her to school," Rumford said. "I'm sure you recall the day Bonnie went and brought her home, Madame Mayor. It was quite the scandal at the time. We'd have adopted the lad ourselves," he added, and held out a finger for the babe to wrap his hand around. "But Emma didn't want to have her son be legally her brother."

"You happened to come into the shop asking for a child just when Emma called to tell us about her situation," Bonnie continued. "It was practically fate. But if you've decided that you don't want him because of who is mother is..."

"In that instance, we will certainly step in. We wouldn't want some complete stranger to raise our grandson," Mr Gold said plainly.

Rage burned in Regina's black eyes.

"Fine," she spat.

"I'm sure we could find you another child if you'd like. Perhaps a daughter instead?" Bonnie offered archly.

~oOo~

The Queen was the sort of woman that gloated. It wasn't just something that she enjoyed doing, it was a soul-deep, burning need. So when she returned from making a deal with Rumplestiltskin for vital information, she had to make a stop in her dungeons.

"Belle," she said, and the curve of her mouth was smug. She felt she had every reason to be so, after all, and had no reason to suppress her feelings.

Rumplestiltskin was in a prison in the Dwarf Mines. The woman who was his True Love was secured in _her_ prison, and the former had no idea that the latter even lived. It was wonderful.

"Regina," Belle answered. Even locked in a cell, the girl's spirit was unbroken.

But that was fine. Regina like watching the other woman snap and snarl at her through the bars, impotent in her fury.

"I've just been to visit Rumplestiltskin," Regina reported.

"You only ever come to visit me when you have news of him," Belle countered calmly. "How is he? Last time you came down here, it was to tell me that a bunch of young royalty had apparently, somehow, managed to trick and trap him."

Regina smirked.

"You should be glad you're my prisoner, and not Snow White's. Rumple's prison is filthy. The air is stuffy, the only light is from a couple of torches, I think they only give him a single cup of water each day. He's a mess," Regina reported happily. "And of course, he's been wearing the same clothes for too long. Long enough that they're hanging limply on his frame, even with the laces pulled as tight as possible."

"You mean he's lost weight and they don't even let him clean himself," Belle snarled lowly. "I knew they didn't trust him, but they're being worse to him than they were to you when you were their prisoner."

Regina's smirk fell away.

"How do you know about that?" she questioned.

"The guards you own are without their hearts, not their tongues," Belle replied blandly. "I know you're dying to tell me: why did you visit Rumplestiltskin in his cell?"

"I needed to know why the Dark Curse didn't work," Regina said. "He was, as ever, very willing to make a deal. He's gotten pathetic in his prison though. He peered out of the bars at me like I was his last hope to even see the sun."

"What did he ask for in exchange for the knowledge you wanted?" Belle pressed.

"Comfort," Regina answered smugly. "A good life in the new land that the curse will take us to."

Belle chuckled. "What else?" she pressed knowingly.

Regina grumbled. "If he says 'please', I must do what he says," she allowed, "but he won't remember anything when we reach the new land, only I will, and Rumplestiltskin isn't the sort to say 'please' to anyone."

"And you agreed," Belle said, a confident smile on her pretty face as she stood from where she'd been curled up in a corner of her cell.

"He'll have an estate, be rich, and yes, in the highly unlikely event he ever says 'please', I'll do what he bids," Regina agreed.

Belle approached the displaced queen and pressed herself up against the bars, just as Rumplestiltskin had in his own cell.

"Comfort, you promised him," Belle said with a smile. "I am his comfort."

"I promised only material comfort," Regina countered. "I'll be the only one with a happy ending once I've cast the curse."

"All curses can be broken," Belle reminded Regina.

"Well, killing a baby is on my to-do list," Regina allowed. "But trying to break curses didn't work out so well for you, as I recall."

"Rumplestiltskin pushed me away before his curse could finish breaking," Belle agreed. "But you know what? I bet if you set me in front of him right now, he wouldn't care about me breaking his curse or not. You're going to send us all to a land without magic, after all."

Regina laughed.

"I'll make you a deal," Belle suggested. "You've already agreed to Rumple getting land and riches, I'm guessing you'll just translate equivalent estate to the Dark Castle, let him keep all his collected treasures and all the gold he's spun over the centuries."

Regina nodded slowly, interested to see where the princess/maid/prisoner was going with this.

"For myself? I want to be able to explore the world we'll end up in. Come and go as I please. For him? Write me in as his wife," Belle demanded. "You did promise him comfort. What's more comforting than a loving spouse? Even if she does like to take off and travel the world now and then."

"And in exchange?" Regina queried.

"While the curse is sweeping through the land, before it takes us away, take me to Rumplestiltskin," Belle said. "See if I can't still break his curse. That way, if someone ever breaks your curse, you won't have to worry about the Dark One. Because if he finds out I'm alive any way other than you yourself presenting me to him, before the curse is cast mind, you can bet he'll have all sorts of nasty plans for you. I'll be able to curtail that."

Regina thought about it a moment, then grinned.

"Deal," she purred.

"Out of curiosity, your majesty, why didn't the curse work before?"

"It turns out I need to sacrifice the heart of the thing I love most," Regina said, and the reminder of that knowledge disquieted her.

"So, your own heart?" Belle suggested. "Since you don't love anybody else the way you love yourself. Or the heart of your mother? You do seem to go out of your way to please her rather a lot, even when she's dead and you have her heart in a box. Or will you kill your father?"

Regina breathed in deeply through her nose, nostrils flaring, before she turned and stormed out of her dungeon.

~The End~


End file.
